Friday, September 7, 2012

(TheSmokingGun.com) SEPTEMBER 6--A North Carolina man was arrested yesterday for threatening to kill President Barack Obama in a series of Twitter messages, one of which warned that, “Ima hit president Obama with that Lee Harvey Oswald swag,” The Smoking Gun has learned.

Donte Jamar Sims, 21, is charged in a felony criminal complaint accusing him of threatening the president’s life in five tweets published September 3. Sims, pictured in the adjacent mug shot, is locked up in advance of a federal detention hearing scheduled for next Tuesday.

In an interview with Secret Service agents yesterday at his Charlotte home, Sims admitted to posting the threats because “he hated President Obama,”according to a U.S. District Court filing. While Sims “asserted he was high on marijuana when he made the threats,” he acknowledged that he “understood what he was doing and that it was wrong,” investigators reported.

Sims’s tweets, which were discovered by a Secret Service intelligence specialist, were published over a 15-minute period early Monday morning. One post warned that, “Well Ima Assassinate president Obama this evening !...Gotta get this monkey off my chest while he's in town -_-.” Another message claimed that the Secret Service “is gonna be defenseless once I aim the Assault Rifle at Barack’s Forehead… F* the #DNC.”

When a Twitter follower asked, “U serious??” in response to one of the Obama threats, Sims replied, “as a Heart Attack.”

In a sworn affidavit, Secret Service Agent Wayne Bourg, Jr. reported that Sims smiled as the federal investigator read aloud the five tweets. But Sims’s demeanor changed after he was transported to a police precinct, where the suspect “asserted that he was sorry he sent the messages threatening to kill the President of the United States and provided me with a written apology,” added Bourg.

Obama arrived in Charlotte yesterday and briefly appeared onstage with Bill Clinton last night at the Democratic National Convention.

Sims’s Twitter account--@DestroyLeague_D--remains online, lists 500 followers, and describes him as the rapper Lupe Fiasco’s “#1 fan.” Based on his Twitter posts Tuesday, Sims apparently watched First Lady Michelle Obama’s DNC speech that evening. “Michelle Obama sexy as Hell, I ain't even gone Front,” he wrote at 10:39 PM. About 20 minutes later, Sims tweeted, “Barack ain't in town? You know Michelle hittin up 935 after this.” Club 935 is a popular Charlotte nightspot.

One of Sims’s final tweets yesterday--before the Secret Service showed up at his door—reported, “Smoking a L as I wait on my Chinese Food.”

North Carolina court records show that Sims was arrested in March on a misdemeanor marijuana possession charge. He was collared last June for pot possession, carrying an invalid driver’s license, and possessing drug paraphernalia.